Mitchell honored by business leaders in the Woodlands

In the Woodlands amphitheater he built that bears his late wife's name and in the city he developed, the late George Mitchell was honored by global celebrities and business leaders Thursday night.

Two nights after a celebration of the Houston-area business icon in his hometown of Galveston, thousands gathered at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion to honor his contributions to science, energy, the environment, and the arts.

Click through the slideshow at right for images of Thursday night’s George P. Mitchell memorial tribute.

Among the eleven speakers, which included, via video message, superstar physicist Stephen Hawking, was Amy Myers Jaffe, a leading expert on global energy policy, geopolitical risk, and energy and sustainability. Myers Jaffe, the Executive Director for Energy and Sustainability at the University of California, Davis, told the crowd that Mitchell's contributions to help make American energy independent cannot be overstated.

"His tireless effort with colleagues to unlock the secret of producing oil and gas from shale will leave a legacy that really truly is going to transform our nation," she said. "To quote my first article about this accomplishment, 'Shale gas will rock the world'."

"Every country in the world, from China to Saudi Arabia, is now at our doorstep asking for the technology that George Mitchell had the vision to make a reality."

It was Myers Jaffe who delivered the most poignant message of the evening that placed Mitchell among the world's foremost intellects.

"With leadership and tenacity, George Mitchell, in my opinion, will go in the history books with Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, and even Alexander Graham Bell, as a great American, who changed the course of our history through invention and genius," Myers Jaffe said.

Dan Steward, former vice president of exploration at Mitchell Energy and Development Corp., which in its early years was a pioneer explorer in the Barnett Shale, described Mitchell as an energy industry visionary.

"He was persistent. He was a risk-taker, and he is the one who made the Barnett (Shale) work. If he hadn't of done what he did in the Barnett, we would have a gas shortage today," Steward said,

Former Houston Mayor Bill White noted that Mitchell, when working with politicians to get things accomplished, often found himself frustrated when knowledge and facts were seemingly not the most important factors being presented to him during discussions.

"George always said, 'I don't understand why it's a matter of ideology. The issue of sustainable development ought to be a matter of biology and science, not politics. What gets into these people, Bill?'," White recalled. "He was willing to learn."

White lauded Mitchell for his willingness to learn and grow. In 2002, well into his 80s, Mitchell befriended another curious mind in physicist Hawking.

"It can be said of very few people that they changed the world, but George Mitchell is among those few," Hawking said in his video message.

The evening included performances by the Houston Symphony and the Texas A&M University Singing Cadets, as well as a rendition of "Over The Rainbow" by vocalist Ashley Tankersley.